Among what indicates the refutation of the Outward and the affirmation of the Inward is what Al-Sayyid al-Muntajab al-Ani—may Allah sanctify him—excelled in his poetry, saying:

"Worships have an inward [reality], and for it

there is an outward matter that appears like foam. Among them is fasting, whose outward appearances

are hunger and heat stirring in the stomach.

But the command is of the opposite; so follow a cause that saves, and weigh what I have mentioned and critique it."

The intent of his saying, "And the command is of the opposite," is that the purpose of His—the Almighty’s—command regarding these worships is the opposite of the Outward... Then he—may Allah sanctify him—called for following the saving cause, which is following the Inward.

Similarly, what he—may Allah sanctify him—bestowed upon us with this meaning in another poem, saying:

"For religion contains worships whose outward forms have exhausted their companion by what he has come to encounter.

Like fasting, when the liver of the hungry one melts therein

and the excess of flame increases in the heart of the thirsty one.

The outward of fasting is abstention, but its inward